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Hobbe
Hobbes are small pests which resemble short and stout goblins. The very first hobbes were lost children who had their souls stolen by dark Nymphs. They can still transform lost children into more hobbes, but the sheer number of hobbes indicates that they have another method of reproduction, given that there isn't a pandemic of lost and kidnapped children throughout Albion. They come up to a human's waist, are bald and have light grey, red, or black skin. Hobbes appear to have cognitive abilities, evidenced by a degree of ingenuity and social structure. While hobbes have limited social capabilities they almost never appear alone. On at least two occasions, hobbes have accepted a human into their society and vice versa. In Fable II, hobbes appear to have the ability to speak. They are often heard arguing in the Hobbe Cave about any number of things. Their voices are high pitched and quite harsh, and they speak with a very thick Cockney accent. Fable Hobbes can mainly be found in Greatwood and Darkwood areas and Hobbe Cave. The hobbes have skilled axe wielders and mages with a shadow ball attack. Most hobbes are weak but they make up for it by attacking in large numbers. The hobbes are one of the enemies fought in the The Arena. To open the Demon Door in Darkwood requires you to fight ever increasing waves of hobbes. A hobbe called Maxely once made it to Bowerstone, and fooled the town with clothes he stole from a rich trader. He was killed after he spoke his first word to the townsfolk. Hobbes are weak against flame, sharpening, and lightning augmentations. In the original Fable (as well as Fable: The Lost Chapters) there are four basic classes of hobbes (100 hps/120 hps, 300 hps, 600 hps, and 900 hps): *The first class includes warriors and mages, they are weak, have no form of armour and sometimes wield axes. *The second class includes stronger hobbes which wear a helmet and some basic clothes. *The third class consists of brutes. these are very strong hobbes with red skin, jutting fangs and a muscular body. These inflict a large amount of damage and wear helmets and overalls. *The fourth, and final class, consists of black brutes, the strongest of the hobbe race. These are identical to red brutes but have black skin and inflict greater damage. Fable II In Fable II, hobbes come in more varieties than in Fable. Their skin is mostly grey. Several hobbes use Will, but the commentators in the Crucible remark that they use natural magic, the magical power that is created from the Earth; rather than Will, which is a magical energy created from the soul. This could be an error, since Will is akin to magic, though it could be that hobbe mages can only control the magical Will energy around them by using their staves. The Hobbe Cave is located in Rookridge in Fable II. In the Crucible, the Hero must fight some hobbes in two of the rounds (three counting the troll match). Folklore of the time claim that hobbes were once children who wandered into caves and were turned into hobbes by dark magic. Hobbes in the Hobbe Cave appear to hide in barrels, and sometimes have remains of the barrels hanging off them. Hobbes are actually cowardly, and shall run amok slamming into walls and jumping off cliffs, especially when you kill the stilt hobbes or mage hobbes. Sometimes after slamming into walls, they may die, without the player even having to lift their sword! In Fable II, there are eight classes of hobbes. The first classes of hobbes are the weakest, the rest of them are around the same in terms of strength. *'Standard Hobbes:' These hobbes have no special abilities, wear simple clothes resembling pyjamas and use weak melee weapons as well as, rarely, guns. These hobbes become rare as you progress further throughout the game and are mostly found on your first exploration of Hobbe Cave where they often hide in barrels. *'Warrior Hobbes:' These large hobbes have red skin, and heavily armoured. Warrior hobbes have similar tactics of commander hobbes. (see below). *'Camo Hobbes:' They dress in green camouflaged clothes and wield both melee and ranged weapons, mainly hobbe-sized Blunderbuss's or Maces. Camo hobbes are basically equivalent to warrior hobbes. These hobbes are found in Brightwood, Bower Lake, Bowerstone Cemetery, and Westcliff. They are the only class of hobbe that does not ever appear in Hobbe Cave. They attack out of bushes, shrubs and trees in a desperate attempt to hurt you but fail many times. *'Mage/Wizard Hobbes:' These hobbes use odd staves when fighting and wear spiffy suits. They can use the Raise Dead, Force Push, and Inferno (targeted attack only) spells, though the smaller kind are much weaker (the more powerful mages wear top hats). They also have an ability that provides a buff to all nearby fighters, which seems to heal them and give them an attack/defence bonus. Killing a mage hobbe can make other hobbes scared, like some other ranks. *'Kamikaze Hobbes:' Resembling warrior hobbes with explosives strapped onto their backs, these hobbes are relatively common and attack by lighting the explosives on their backs and charging. Hitting these kamikaze hobbes kills them and disarms the bomb, but the Inferno spell, guns, and landscape explosives will detonate it immediately. *'Rifle Hobbes:' These hobbes are slightly weaker than warrior hobbes, but always carry small flintlock rifles or blunderbuss's. They are the same size as standard hobbes, but have evolved armour and a watering pot for a helmet. Rifle hobbes are also play a role of a commander hobbe pre-spire. *'Stilt Hobbes:' Stilt hobbes don't usually do much. They walk around slowly on wooden legs and occasionally fire miniature Blunderbuss's at you. They aren't too dangerous despite being quite intimidating, so don't make them your kill priority. Their only dangerous move is a stomp that they use when their enemy is in close quarters. They are, however, immune to low-level area spells, so Will-users beware. Like commander hobbes (see below), if you kill the stilt hobbe, other hobbes scatter. Stilt hobbes are basically rifle and commander hobbes on mechanical stilts. Note that the Vortex spell is VERY effective on stilt hobbes, as they suck the hobbe in and break apart the stilts. *'Commander Hobbes:' Commander hobbes are the toughest of all, most of their armour is identical to warrior hobbes except they have a metal stool/stove on their head for a helmet. They have the most vitality out of the hobbes and are great fighters, dodging your melee blows and counter-attacking. Once you dispatch the commander hobbe, all other hobbes in the area will break ranks and flee. Commander hobbes are very rare until you finish the Hero of Will Quest. *'Hobbe Child Catcher': an unused character who can be depicted from Fable 2 artwork. Used to catch children, likely for prey or to transform into hobbes. It is not known what purpose he would have had in game and if there were more of them. The child catcher didn't make it into the game for unknown reasons. Fable III Hobbes in Fable III are more advanced, and use guns more often to support melee warriors. Note: When firing hobbes are thrown backward (Newton's third law, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction so firing the gun results with hobbe being thrown backwards, occasionally even rolling). Stilt Hobbes were evidently scrapped probably because they were too vulnerable. Hobbes now inhabit the The Hole, or the Mistpeak/Millfields Monorail station. The most common hobbes are depicted below: *'Basic Hobbe: '''These hobbes are the weakest class of hobbes and often use rusty or iron maces, hammers, and axes. Basic hobbes occasionally wield iron blunderbuss's to backup melee squads. They are most often found earlier in the game, and wear nothing but a pair of pants. But are later replaced by warriors once enough followers are gained. *'Warrior Hobbe:' Warrior hobbes are one of the toughest hobbes encountered so far. They are bigger than basic and mage/wizard hobbes and are infamous for evading attacks and are now capable of blocking blows. Warrior hobbes are distinguished by the traditional red skin and wear military uniforms, and are armed with Steel Axes and blunderbusses to back up melee allies. These hobbes sport Major Swift-style moustaches. *'Summoner Hobbe:' These spell-casters have not changed much from ''Fable II; they wield a staff and are capable of casting fireballs that fire much more quickly than in Fable II, but have a smaller shock-wave. Mage and wizard hobbes can summon either three "hollow hobbes" that are equivalent to basic hobbes or two that are equivalent to warrior hobbes. They are no longer capable of healing or giving offence boosts to their comrades. *'Commander Hobbe: '''These hobbes, called Elite Hobbes in the quest The Game, look identical to warriors, but are stronger and use Master Axes. Commanders are particularly dangerous, where they have a special twirl lash attack when you are landing at least 2 hits on them in a short amount of time, so use a flourish to deal with commanders. *'Ambusher Hobbe:' Ambushers are most commonly found in story sequences portraying hobbes, such as The Mistpeak Monorail or Pest Control. Finding Ambushers is rather rare during normal exploration, though they can always be found at the Sunset House (just after entering from the graveyard). They are much like warrior hobbes that use guns and axes. Ambushers can be distinguished with either a 3-pronged candle, bits of shrubs and bushes, and some wear junk and a small vacuum on their back. Much like camo hobbes from ''Fable II, they leap out at the player when nearby. *'Hobbe Child Catcher: '''In the Fable 3 artbook is a small piece of concept art depicting a Hobbe Child Catcher, meaning the developers might have intended to bring it into the game. Trivia *During the Hobbe Cave quest, if you rescue the Bandit in a side room and manage to get him to the focus stone in the cave itself, you are able to replace the child with him. If you do so, later on if you return there (not including the time you chase Jack) there will be a large barrel in the exact same place as the sacrifice was at. The barrel is unbreakable. *In some hobbe caves there are shrines with teddy bears on them meaning that hobbes either worship them or perhaps retain some of their childhood inclinations. *In the first ''Fable, the basic hobbes appear to wear bandages. *Their name may be a reference to "Hob" or "Hobgoblin". *Their name may be a reference to the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who is known for his quote "The life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short". ''Those last three adjectives are a fitting description of the creatures. *At the end of ''Fable, the credits boast a member whose last name is Hobbes. *Their name may also reference the goblin character, Hobbes, from the DC comic Fables. *In Fable II, when a hobbe is killed by a high level of shock, a sort of squished together human skeleton is revealed, showing that hobbes have a similar bone structure to humans. *Sometimes when you fight hobbes who use Will, known as summoner hobbes, they will summon "Hollow Hobbes" instead of Hollow Men. This can be seen when fighting in the Crucible in Fable II or anytime on Fable III. *In Fable II during a loading screen tells "There is a saying that hobbes were once children led astray into dark places by whispering voices." *In Fable II when inside Chesty's world and you encounter hobbes, they are at least a head taller than you. This reinforces the idea that they are children possibly older than you were at that time. *Concept art reveals an unused character for Fable II: "The Hobbe Child Catcher". This does not explains the "whispering voices". Instead, as revealed in the original Fable, Nymphs were the "whispering voices". *In Fable II, standard hobbes appear to be wearing pyjamas. *It's not clear why, but the spirits summoned by the Raise Dead spell, when there are no fresh corpses nearby, take on the forms of hobbes. *Hobbes, along with weak bandits, are one shot kills 95% of the time if you are using The Enforcer. *Known expressions that hobbes use are 'Point and Laugh', 'Bloodlust Roar', and 'Slap'. (Even Worship when under the Chaos spell.) *One variant of a hobbe is shown with a silver key around it's neck, although this key cannot be collected *Some fleeing hobbes will just hide, but others, especially near a drop, will commit suicide. Unfortunately, you do not get any experience for suicidal hobbes. *It's confirmed that hobbes have made a home in The Hole, a region in Fable III. *In Fable III, inside a cell in Nigel Ferret's Hideout, there is a hobbe worshipping a box, a possible reference to the game Portal because the box has hearts on each side, like the companion cube. And near the cell you can see a cake. *Contrary to most beliefs, hobbes have great intellectual capacities. Their ability to mass manufacture unique staves that deposit a will spell into a sphere, and puts it into a on impact detonation, releasing a low level will spell into the targeted area. The raise dead spell Is the exception, as the hobbe must channel a raise dead spell, but the sphere remains until the summoning is complete. They are, however, extremely cowardly, thus their sense of cowardice often goes before logic, resulting in the stereotype of the dumb hobbe. *They, when not in combat, can be seen in special events in a highly advanced culture, including what appears to be religion, salvaging operations, construction, hunting, adoption, and locksmithing. Examples include the gladiatorial arena that the hobbes trap the Hero of Brightwall in during Fable III, the lock on the Hobbe Cave door in Fable II, the adoption of Tommy in Hobbe Squatters, the worship of what appears to be a teddy bear in Hobnobbing With Hobbes including a tribal dance, apparent priests/shamans, and a temple are excellent examples of hobbe religion. They have made hundreds of constructions with salvaged goods, thrown away by the people of Albion, and put to use in massive building projects. This leads to the belief that either they can't, or don't want to collect raw resources and refine them into manufactured products, and rather using scrap from Ablion's wasteful citizens. * In Fable III, it appears that the wizard hobbes are wearing a similar outfit as Reaver does. * In Fable III, warrior hobbes wear redcoats from soldiers. * Hobbes are now slightly less likely to flee in terror and smack into walls in Fable III. * In Fable III, if you look carefully at a wizard's belt-line, you can see a teddy bear's head for a buckle. * Hob is a generic term for various Dwarf-like and Elf-like magical creatures in Germanic folklore. * "Old Hob" is an old name for the devil. * Since some hobbes are larger and more powerful than others, and some almost as tall as an adult, it could mean that some hobbes are actually teenagers, such as warrior, mage and commander hobbes. * In game and in some concept art, hobbes can be seen wearing their pants backwards. In a quest in Fable III, Walter also mentions "smart enough to use magic, but not smart enough to wear their pants the right way around." * In Fable III the hobbe killed by Walter´s "magic" can be killed by the player by having the safety lock off and using spells, mostly area spells. * In Fable and Fable: The Lost Chapters if the Player was to stab a hobbe when it's dead it's mouth and stomach will move making it look like the hobbe was still breathing but when the Hero removes his sword from the dead hobbe it will stop breathing. Gallery Hobbe Mage.jpg|A hobbe mage in Fable. Hobbe Brute.jpg|A black brute hobbe in Fable. HobbeFable2.jpg|A hobbe in Fable II. Hobbe Child Catcher.png|Concept of a hobbe child catcher. Category:Fable Enemies Category:Fable II Enemies Category:Fable III Enemies